In cooperation with the Berliner Sparkassenstiftung Medizin, the Eva Luise und Horst Köhler Foundation for People with Rare Diseases and the Geschwister Mangelsdorff Foundation, Alliance4Rare gGmbH in collaboration with the BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy is once again inviting applications for five positions for Junior Clinician Scientists for Rare (JCS4Rare). Participants will be competitively selected via the BIH Charité Junior Clinician Scientist Program and accepted into the program. They receive additional training and networking opportunities tailored to the needs of rare disease research, which are provided by Alliance4Rare gGmbH.
Funding
The JCS4Rare funding starts on March 1, 2025 as part of the BIH Charité Junior Clinician Scientist Program. It takes place with the support of mentors over a period of two years at one of the Pediatric Clinics or the Institute of Human Genetics at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin. For a period of two years, the fellows are released from clinical duties to a fixed extent of 25 percent of a full-time position. This part of the position is then available exclusively for scientific activities within the scope of the submitted project outline and participation in specific further training and networking opportunities offered by Alliance4Rare.
Based on developments in research and the healthcare sector, the focus is on the following topics:
CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES
Research in the field of rare diseases must be highly innovative. For this reason, the Alliance4Rare promotes the acquisition or deepening of specialized expertise in new diagnostic procedures such as next generation sequencing (NGS), transcriptome or proteome analysis in its thematic focus “Cutting Edge Technologies”. Participants also have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge of innovative methods for identifying disease mechanisms such as working with pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) or single cell sequencing.
DIGITAL MEDICINE
The use of learning AI systems can help to significantly shorten diagnostic pathways. As part of this Junior Clinician Scientists program, clinically active scientists will be given the opportunity to learn about the new technological challenges associated with advanced computer-assisted scientific approaches and to participate in their development.
Alliance4Rare gGmbH supports the participants of its programs in finding suitable internships in order to learn or deepen their knowledge of new procedures and methods. The curricula also include supervision of the participants by national and international mentors with proven expertise in rare diseases in childhood as well as participation in the annual Alliance4Rare Winter School and the Rare Disease Symposia of the Eva Luise and Horst Köhler Foundation in Berlin.
The protected research time cannot be credited to the specialist training period, which will be extended accordingly. Refinancing will take place taking into account the personal requirements according to pay group Ä1 on the basis of the TV-Ärzte Marburger Bund – Charité.
Family friendliness
Various measures have been implemented to make the program family-friendly. The program can be completed part-time (at least 45%), whereby only the clinical part can be reduced. The protected research time of 25 percent (based on full-time employment), which is covered by the funding providers, cannot be reduced by working part-time. This does not extend the program duration of two years, but the clinical training must be extended in accordance with the reduction of the clinical part. In addition, program participants have the option, in consultation with the program management, to pause their personal funding for up to a maximum of 36 months (up to 18 months per child) due to maternity and parental leave.
Women are strongly encouraged to apply. Applications from people with a migration background who meet the recruitment requirements are explicitly encouraged.
Prerequisites
The call for applications is aimed at candidates who have started their medical training in the fields of pediatrics or human genetics. The duration of further training at the start of funding must not exceed three years. Further recruitment requirements are a completed doctorate and a scientifically sound and promising project outline in the field of rare diseases, which has been assigned to the main topics of CUTTING EDGE TECHNOLOGIES or DIGITAL MEDICINE.
Returnees from abroad and applicants from outside Charité are eligible to apply, provided that they have a binding employment contract at Charité at the time of application (see form for returnees and external applicants).
Application
The application is only possible online via the BIH application and reporting portal until September 3, 2024 and includes, among other things
- a fully completed application form including a project outline on one of the above-mentioned focus areas and CV information
- a letter of recommendation from the clinic director
- Nomination of two mentors (clinical and basic science); in the case of an application for DIGITAL MEDICINE, additional nomination of a third mentor (digital-scientific)
- completed and signed forms: confirmation of performance, confirmation of funding and information on ethics vote and, if applicable, approval of animal experimentation projects
- license to practice medicine
- Doctoral degree certificate (grade at least magna cum laude); if doctoral degree certificate not yet available: Certificate from the doctoral office or proof of all reviews; applicants with foreign degrees require an equivalent to a German graded doctorate or, if applicable, a PhD; Dr. med. as a diploma degree, as is common in Austria, Hungary or Italy, for example, is not recognized as a PhD equivalent
Further information and documents can be downloaded here.
Review
Applicants for JCS4Rare funding undergo the two-stage selection process of the BIH Charité Junior Clinician Scientist Program, whereby all JCS4Rare applications are assigned at least one reviewer from the Department of Pediatrics.
After a positive vote, all JCS4Rare participants are accepted into the BIH Charité Junior (Digital) Clinician Scientist Program on an equal footing with the other participants and receive additional training and networking opportunities tailored to the needs of rare disease research.
Contact
Please also refer to the current information sheets and handouts on the BIH Charité J(D)CSP and use the information provided by the BIA office.
For further information on JCS4Rare funding and the Alliance4Rare, please contact Sanna Börgel (phone +49 (0)228 6177 9673).
For more information on the application and selection process, please contact Dr. Katharina Walentin (phone +49 (0)30 450 543 306).
In case of technical problems with the application portal, please send an e-mail to portal@bih-charite.de.
